The Four General Principles

​

These four principles are considered the foundation of the CRC and are essential for interpreting and implementing all the other rights.

• Non-Discrimination (Article 2): This principle ensures that all rights in the Convention apply to every child without discrimination of any kind, regardless of their or their parents' race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.

• Best Interests of the Child (Article 3): This is a primary consideration in all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities, or legislative bodies. The well-being of the child must be a top priority.

• The Right to Life, Survival, and Development (Article 6): This clause goes beyond simply protecting a child's life. It obligates states to ensure "to the maximum extent possible" the child's survival and holistic development, including physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development.

• Respect for the Views of the Child (Article 12): This principle recognizes the child's right to freely express their views on all matters affecting them. Their opinions should be given "due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child."

​

​

Categorized Rights

​

The CRC's articles can be grouped into different types of rights:

• Survival and Development Rights: These include basic needs like the right to an adequate standard of living (Article 27), the right to healthcare (Article 24), the right to a name and nationality (Article 7), and the right to education (Article 28).

• Protection Rights: These clauses are designed to safeguard children from harm. They include:

  • Protection from abuse and neglect (Article 19).

  • Protection from economic and sexual exploitation, including child labor, trafficking, and child prostitution (Articles 32-36).

  • Protection from armed conflict, which prohibits the involvement of children under 15 in hostilities (Article 38).

  • Protection from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment (Article 37).

• Participation Rights: These rights empower children to have a voice and participate in their lives and communities. They include:

  • Freedom of expression (Article 13).

  • Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion (Article 14).

  • Freedom of association and peaceful assembly (Article 15).

  • The right to access and impart information (Article 17).

​​

​

There are three Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

​

These protocols are separate treaties that complement and strengthen the main Convention, and countries must ratify them independently of the CRC to be bound by their provisions.

 

1. Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (OPAC)

 

• Purpose: To protect children from recruitment and use in hostilities.

• Key Provisions:

  • Requires States to raise the minimum age for compulsory recruitment into their armed forces to 18 years.

  • Requires States to take all feasible measures to ensure members of their armed forces under 18 do not take a direct part in hostilities.

  • Bans armed groups distinct from the state's armed forces from recruiting or using children under 18 in hostilities.

 

2. Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (OPSC)

 

• Purpose: To combat the sexual exploitation and abuse of children and protect child victims.

​

• Key Provisions:

  • Requires States to criminalise and punish offences related to the sale of children for sexual or non-sexual purposes (like forced labour or illegal adoption), child prostitution, and child pornography.

  • Provides definitions for these offences.

  • Emphasises the protection of child victims, requiring governments to provide legal, medical, psychological, and social support.

 

3. Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedure (OPIC)

 

• Purpose: To allow individual children, or groups of children, to submit complaints directly to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child about specific violations of their rights under the Convention and its first two Optional Protocols.

​

• Key Provisions:

  • Establishes a mechanism for individual complaints (communications) once all domestic legal remedies have been exhausted.

  • Allows the Committee to conduct inquiries into grave or systematic violations of children's rights.